Down the Chesapeake to Virginia

Storm on the radar

Today we crossed into Virginia and tied up in Deltaville just before a storm hit. The picture on the right is from our GPS chartplotter that we use to track our position. The bottom half of the screen is the nautical chart showing depths and you can see the image of our boat in the middle going between red and green buoys. The little box on the left shows the autopilot is steering a course of 198 degrees and we have 10.8 nautical miles to go on this leg for another hour and 15 minutes. The top screen is the radar image of our boat surrounded by a small rain storm 2 miles around us. Cool, huh? Let me recap the last couple of days--

Monday October 22

We left Annapolis after a relaxing 4 day stay for the 6 hour cruise to Solomon's Island-- a real cruising center. SeaDee traveled down with us and we had a wonderful dinner at a local seafood restaurant with a couple Andy knew, Claus & Betty, who happened to be in the same port on Moonbeam. One of the joys of cruising is getting to know other cruisers-- we're really enjoying the social life! And being close to nature is wonderful-- as the sunrise to the right shows! We waited out a day of very windy weather and scrubbed Pathfinder from top to bottom and did three loads of laundry before taking a dip in the marina pool and heading out for a long walk and crabcakes at a local restaurant.

Wednesday October 24

We got an early start for the 6 hour cruise to Deltaville, VA. As we left Solomon's Island we cruised past a naval air base where fighter jets were doing "touch & go". A naval vessel also steamed passed us... on the radio this one's call sign was "Warship 72".

We're just getting settled in Deltaville. As soon as I finish this blog and Marianne finishes her book we're going to head into town for dinner. Next stop-- Portsmouth, VA and the official start of the Intracoastal Waterway and "Mile Zero"